...stay out of the kitchen, or so the saying goes. Our entire adult lives, both of us have made an effort to abide by this bit of wisdom. As we mentioned last week, our daughter, Rachel, is much more oven-oriented than either of her parents. Our culinary skills have forced us to seek out Early Bird dinners all over town while Rachel's love of the kitchen has made her a Pillsbury Bake-Off semi-finalist in their Quick Rise and Shine Breakfast competition.
 
We learned, when you're in the Bake-Off competition, the Pillsbury team sends you a special branded apron to use as "whenever wear" (as in, we'd like you to wear this whenever someone is pointing a camera in your direction). The contestants get a free apron, the Pillsbury Corp gets their name out there, it's all good.
 
Team Pillsbury also shares some media tips with the contestants; you know, in case they're interviewed for the local t.v. station, the hometown paper, or a popular website. No, not this site; a popular site. Those tips must be golden because the NWF Daily News knocked on Rachel's door and she told all. Plus, the words "Pillsbury" and "Bake-Off" enter the conversation frequently. Her interview is here.

One fellow who is also a baker but who has yet to hear from the NWF Daily News is Inom, the man on the left. (You might not appreciate the sexiness of Inom's name on first listen but give it some time. If the sullen but steamy vampire in Twilight was called Inom, everyone would think the name sounded oh-so-hot. If there was a popular actor named Inom Clooney, babies everywhere would share the moniker. Deny it if you must but you know we're telling the truth.)  Although, honestly, the NWF Daily News might have made a good call. Inom doesn't look like the kind of guy who welcomes reporters. Or photographers, either.
 
Would it kill you, buddy, to break a smile?
 
Whether he's smiling or not, we're on Team Inom. We had some royalty money to spend so we headed to Kiva.org, our favorite micro-lending organization. On the Kiva site (here),  we read, "Inom works as a baker and sells baked goods. He is 32 years old. He is a married man, has two sons and two daughters, and lives with his family in the town of Qurgan-Tube in the Khatlon region. The children are in school and his wife helps him in the activities". Inom wanted two thousand dollars to buy the ingredients (flour, sugar, margarine, yeast, eggs, raisins and baking powder) he uses in his biscuits. Since the average annual income in Tajikistan is only $1,388, you might think that's an inordinately large amount of cash. But then you see the size of those biscuits and you realize, hey, those things are HUGE. Is two thousand dollars going to be enough?

So we opened our wallets and contributed to the cause. If Rachel wins the bake-off, she's promised to use part of her million dollar prize to take us to Qurgan-Tube to try Inom's biscuits. And, if we go, we're going to ask the Pillsbury people if we can bring Inom one of those bright blue Bake-Off aprons. Then, if we can somehow talk him into putting it on, we're going to take a picture and share it with you.
 
Because that's what it's all about, you know? Sharing the love.
 
Quote o' the day:  "Baking makes me focus. On weighing the sugar. On sieving the flour. I find it calming and rewarding because, in fairness, it is sort of magic. You start off with all this disparate stuff, such as butter and eggs, and what you end up with is so totally different. And also delicious." -- Marian Keyes

…in a big baking contest, there are all kinds of rules and regs to follow. Some things are allowed, other things aren’t, and stuffing the ballot box is absolutely against the rules. One person = one vote is pretty much the theory and we’re good with it. 

Since we’ve had our turn at the internet voting box, we’re hoping you’ll consider placing your vote, too. Because – be prepared for bragging – it’s just been announced that our daughter, Rachel Ruiz, is one of the Pillsbury Bake-Off’s Quick Rise and Shine Breakfasts semi-finalists.

Proud? You bet we are -- even if we’re a little confused. Where did the girl get her cooking genes? Renee’s favorite dessert is No Fat Chocolate Pudding, found in the bakery aisle of our local mega-mart. Peel off the top lid and the brown goo is good-to-go. Harrell’s favorite breakfast is Maruchan Ramen at 15 cents a packet. Add boiling water, let the block of pressed noodles steep for 60 seconds, and it’s a meal. As you can see, we’re pretty casual about the meaning of the words, dessert and meal.

In our house, “home cooking” meant we were having dinner at the neighbor’s house. So, when our teenaged daughter blew the dust off of our pots and pans and starting preparing real food, we were more than a little surprised. (Also, more than a little pleased. Shhh, don’t tell her.) Then Rachel went off to college, joined the Air Force, met Ben, the man o’ her dreams, married and moved away…and we returned to a life of non-refrigerated desserts and sodium-laden noodles.

Meanwhile, Team Ruiz produced two of the world’s cutest grandbabies. In between diaper changing, still ongoing and ever so much fun, Rachel began developing her own recipes. She frequently provides treats for Ben and his co-workers but a stay-at-home mom has limited opportunities to display her skills. Wanting to stretch her culinary muscles, she began to enter on-line cooking contests. She told us, “I love, LOVE to bake and recipe contests give me an outlet for my creativity.”  The Pillsbury Corp offers the biggest recipe contest in the world.

There are thousands of entries chasing the million dollar prize so it’s an honor to be selected as a semi-finalist. Truly. However, as we learned during the Disney Fellowship Competitions, life rarely rewards the world’s semi-finalists. There are three categories in the contest and the first two (Appetizers and Dinners) have already been completed; only Breakfast is still in play. Sixty recipes were chosen in the contest’s breakfast category and only 33 of the Quick Rise and Shine Breakfast contestants will be going to Las Vegas to continue competing for the prize.

Those 33 contestants are chosen via internet voting. The one person = one vote is in full force but you can vote for as many recipes as you like. As it happens, we think her recipe for Spicy Tortilla Breakfast Empanadas is really inventive and pretty terrific. (No, we haven’t made it ourselves. Haven’t you been paying attention? We wouldn’t make it even if the ingredients included No Fat Chocolate Pudding and Maruchan Ramen. Also, it’s not take-out pizza. On the other hand, Rachel has made it and it tastes wonderful!)

“It’s pretty much a twist on one of Ben’s and my favorite breakfast dishes, the Tex-Mex version of migas,” she told us. Tex-Mex migas traditionally include scrambled eggs, tortilla chips and salsa. Her version? Even with only seven ingredients and a 20-minute prep time, it came out really different and fun. “It just came to me one day and I decided to try it. I liked it, Ben really liked it, and I decided to enter it in the contest.”

So that’s where we are today. Since it’s a short contest – it runs September 12th through September 26th -- we’d appreciate it if you’d swing by the Pillsbury site and sign-up today. (Go here.) It’s pretty easy; if you’re 18 years old, you give ‘em an e-mail address, make up a password, and you’re in. Then go to the Voting Gallery, review the 60 different breakfast recipes, buy all of the ingredients, make every dish, and then vote for Rachel Ruiz once you’ve decided you like her creation best. Or, if you’re a little busy, just check out Rachel’s recipe and, if you like it, cast your vote. You can finish the other stuff later.

Thanks. And happy eating!